Haydn: Quartet Opus 1#0 in E-flat major

Completed in 1758, the year he turned 26.  Haydn's early quartets were composed in the 1750's, before he was married (1760) or in the employ of the Esterhazy family. The first ones were likely written for Baron von Fürnberg as "divertimenti" — it's possible that some were written while he was employed by Count Morzin the following year as well. In any event, solid dates are hard to come by, so please interpret the ones presented here for Opus 1 (not published until 1764) and Opus 2 as approximate. Read more on wikipedia.

See other quartets by Haydn. Check out the score on IMSLP.